Welcome | Wallace and Gromit Welcome to the world of Wallace & Gromit, the home of everything to do with the eccentric inventor and his trusted canine friend. Revisit classic film moments and get to know a little more about Nick Park, creator of one of the best-loved duos in animation. Delve into a history filled with quirky stories and fascinating trivia, as well as following the recent news from the world of Aardman, sharing your own Wallace & Gromit creations, taking part in competitions and much more. "Won’t you come in? We were just about to have some cheese…" Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park reveals his first ever animated film | Daily Mail Online comments Loved by the nation, animated characters Wallace and Gromit have become household names. Their creator, Nick Park, has received endless accolades for his four animated short films following the duo's hilarious escapades. Here, he reveals the childhood influences that led to the birth of Wallace and Gromit and for the first time unveils his first ever animated film, Walter The Rat Goes Fishing. Scroll down to watch exclusive video of Nick Park's first ever animated film. It was the same routine every summer in the Sixties.

As school broke up and the sun emerged, my family would depart our Lancashire home in an ancient Land Rover or beaten-up Ford van to go camping in North Wales. Our spirits were high, but the journey was far from smooth. Inevitably we would break down, leaving me and my four siblings sitting at the roadside as our father Roger wrestled with whichever recalcitrant engine component had failed us. For us, motor maintenance was as much part of a holiday as cloudy skies and ice-cream. Indeed, it was only in later life that we discovered most family getaways do not include compulsory vehicle repair. The Rat That Goes Fishing: Nick Park's first animated film - shot by the Oscar-winner when he was just 13 - featured characters made from cotton bobbins Ambitious: Park shot the film on an 8mm movie camera his father bought for his mother on her birthday First attempt: As a teenager, Park was influenced by his father who he describes as a 'tinkerer, maker and mender' My father, an architectural photographer, was an incurable tinkerer, maker and mender. He was always building something in his shed.

We never bought anything new – you didn’t in those days – and materials were easy to come by. Dad would drive to our local municipal dump outside Preston, ostensibly to dispose of our old junk. But he would return home with more than he’d taken – wheels, wood, miscellaneous mechanisms – my mother Celia frowning at his new haul, in a manner not dissimilar to Gromit. Family life, though, was always fun. On one occasion, Dad constructed a caravan from scratch, stripping down an old chassis and building a new body out of hardboard and timber. It had furniture permanently fixed to the floor – a real home from home, even down to the wallpapered interior, applied lovingly by my mother. Creative: Park's parents loved making things. His father once built a caravan for their summer holidays while his mother made clothes Model maker: Nick Park with his creations Wallace and Gromit The Rocket: Famously debuted in World of Invention, it was designed to fetch cheese from the moon and also benefited from homely furniture and tasteful wallpaper.

Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual Wallace and Gromit in a scene from A Grand Day out, the first of their four animated adventures For us, this was a splendid adventure, building our own transport and taking it on holiday. Years later, when I constructed the Rocket for A Grand Day Out – the first Wallace and Gromit film – I realised suddenly that I’d made a movie about my dad. Wallace’s rocket, designed to fetch cheese from the moon, also benefited from homely furniture and tasteful wallpaper. It’s that spirit of British amateur inventiveness and do-it-yourself pluck that the Wallace and Gromit stories seek to recreate – the (probably mistaken) idea that everyday life can be improved by the wonders of modern science, preferably undertaken in a cellar or shed with a large dollop of Beano-style humour. A Grand Day Out only had the one invention – the rocket – but as Wallace rose to international stardom so his contraptions became more ambitious. His mind races to dream up ever more sophisticated labour-saving devices, operated by a button or lever. Of course, it’s only his own labour that is saved, usually at Gromit’s expense.

The Easy Iron: Wallace pedals, thus turning a conveyor belt while Gromit wears a pair of irons to ensure crease-free clothing. Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual The real thing: Wallace and Gromit in action on the Easy Iron The silent dog ends up doing all the work – as happens with the Mark 1 Easy Iron, in which Gromit is required to skate with irons strapped to his paws while clothes move along a heat-resistant conveyor belt. It’s perfect for trousers, shirts and even woollens, but would be tricky if the belt conks out. Spontaneous tank top combustion would surely ensue. With such demands placed on his canine shoulders, you cannot help but feel sorry for Gromit. Of the two, he is the cleverer, but is forever bewildered at the cruel hand life has dealt him – wondering why he goes along with Wallace’s latest preposterous scheme. Imprisoned in a dog’s body, obliged to be a dogsbody. If you’re a busy chap like Wallace you need to use your day productively – dressing and getting ready for breakfast are clearly a waste of time when there’s inventing afoot.

That’s why he designs the Bed Launcher & Auto Dresser for The Wrong Trousers. The Bun Vacuum 6000: This is pest extraction device seen in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual Wallace and Gromit test their pest control contraption in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit When the contraption was revived for Curse Of The Were-Rabbit, Wallace could no longer slide through the trap door from bed to breakfast table – due to an expanding waistline brought about by overindulgence in Wensleydale. The solution is ingenious but simple – Gromit operates a large mallet to force him through. Wallace is convinced he can solve any problem with technology and scientific logic, but usually succeeds in making things worse. When he gets his tea from the dual-purpose Fuel & Drinks Dispenser, he actually confesses his folly, declaring: ‘A bit dieselly, perhaps.’ The convenient provision of food and drink is at the heart of many Wallace devices, such as the Labour Assisting Device (L.A.D.).

This friendly mechanical butler may borrow from 1950s sci-fi robots but they were missing a trick: they didn’t make tea or serve cheese and crackers. The Bed Launcher: Gromit gets tipped out of bed by Wallace's wake-up machine, and falls through a trapdoor into the breakfast chair in The Wrong Trousers. Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual Wallace in action in a scene from The Wrong Trousers Like my father, I would never as a child throw anything away, keeping old toys, electric motors and bits of broken machines under my bed in what I called my Box of Useful Things. I adapted a plastic bottle so that it would squeeze out different colours of wool. It was clearly a device the world had been crying for so I sent it to Blue Peter, the first of many failed attempts to win an appearance on the show. Junk was the stuff from which we made our hopes and dreams. My brother and I belonged to a small gang who constructed home-made go-carts from pram wheels and wood, just like the Beano’s Bash Street Kids.

A nearby scrap yard that would give us bits of old bubble cars, those strange one or two-seater vehicles popular in the 1950s and 1960s. We used a front chassis from one to make our smartest model, hoping it would finally get us that appearance on Blue Peter. Sadly, it didn’t – that had to wait until I was an adult. The Pie Launcher: Designed to make dinner times a little easier. Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual Pie-eyed: Wallace has fun feeding Gromit There were other madcap ideas. My brother and I planned a hovercraft using fans and an inflatable rubber ring, but it never got far beyond the drawing board. Perhaps that was in my mind when Wallace created the Hover Wellies, perfect for land, water, snow, ice and puddles. Hovercraft and go-carts were all well and good, but I hankered after adventure far beyond Preston and North Wales. I wanted to fashion my old motors and switches into machines which would spirit me to mysterious worlds as they did in HG Wells’s The Time Machine and the Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Disappointment never crossed my mind.

It was not, however, a time machine or a submarine that finally transported my imagination but the Bell & Howell 8mm movie camera my dad bought my mum for her birthday. Despite it being hers, my parents encouraged all of us to make films. This was a revelation. I discovered the camera had a single frame button that enabled you to do stop motion. I created characters, initially using cotton bobbins from Mum’s dressmaking kit rather than modelling clay. You shot a single frame of your character, then you moved it and shot the next frame to simulate movement. I was amazed: here I was, aged 13, in our loft making animated films just like my heroes. The Jumbo Generator: This contraption powered the studio by harnessing the flatulence of an elephant. Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual From Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention, the Jumbo Generator After studying in Sheffield, I went down to London to do my post-graduate degree at the National Film and Television School, embarking on the movie that would eventually become A Grand Day Out. I had little money as a student, so I spent my weekends pottering round the Science Museum.

Some of those early cast iron steam engines, ancient cars and vintage labour-saving household appliances can be seen in Wallace’s constructions, especially my favourite, the Bun Vac 6000 from Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. As usual, the unwieldy pest control contraption is Wallace’s way of solving everything through technology. He doesn’t want to hurt the rabbits – instead deploying suction to capture them alive so they can be released without being harmed. It’s part Victorian – with lots of rivets – and part Dyson. Equally, there are elements of early industrial technology in the Jumbo Generator, which Wallace brilliantly designs to power his cellar television studio. It uses a readily available commodity – Brussels sprouts – which are fed to an elephant, which produces methane, in turn firing an electric turbine. There is only one problem: elephants are not quite as plentiful as sprouts – the elephant in the room, you might say. And, Gromit has ended up doing all the work, yet again, feeding the elephant wheelbarrows of green veg. The Fuel and Drinks Dispenser: Refreshments such as tea can be served through the nozzle.

Taken from Haynes Cracking Contraptions 2 Manual Another of Wallace’s problems is he cannot stop himself tinkering, like my dad. He always wants to modify existing technology such as the Austin 35 Van, also from Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. He fits access hatches, a lasso system, grabbers and a giant female rabbit puppet intended to lure the male were-rabbit and, as ever, operated by Gromit. We chose the Austin A35 because it’s such an unlikely heroic car – our ironic take on the Bat mobile or the Starsky and Hutch car. That didn’t stop an American movie executive asking me during the early stages of making the film if Wallace could have a cooler, more modern car. The whole point is that it’s not cool. Wallace and Gromit’s contraptions are created purely for gags, but we all have the urge to invent – especially children. If they’re bored, kids will make something from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, tape and elastic bands. Often those constructions are the best.

It was a childhood dream of mine to become an inventor, and I suppose I’ve been lucky enough to realise that ambition through Wallace, and the inventions that he comes up with. I have to admit to not being the greatest technician, but stop motion animation gives me licence to create machines that wouldn’t otherwise be possible – inventions that seem real and actually work. In animation everything and anything is possible, even elephant wind power. Wallace & Gromit Cracking Contraptions 2 Derek Smith (with letter from Wallace), Illustrations Graham Bleathman RRP: £12.99 BUY IT HERE Interview: Nick Park, Oscar-winning creator of Wallace and Gromit | Media | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close In a warehouse on a corner of an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bristol, the next instalment of the adventures of an absent-minded inventor and his rather more intelligent dog is slowly - very slowly - taking shape. Friendly teams of animators work with quiet intensity in the gloom of the basement.

Upstairs, it is as though the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman have turned their attention to some of Britain's best-loved animated characters, with decapitated versions of Gromit and plasticine limbs scattered liberally around, and sketches and prototypes for new projects lining the walls. For Wallace and Gromit's creator, the diffident Nick Park, production on their latest adventure is reaching its busiest point. The 30-minute A Matter of Loaf and Death - in which both Wallace and Gromit find romance - will form the centrepiece of BBC1's Christmas schedule, as well as marking a return to television for Aardman Animations after a successful excursion into feature films. But while Chicken Run and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit were both big box office successes, grossing $175m (£88m) and $190m respectively in the cinema alone, the marriage between Aardman and Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks was a rocky one - and was followed by a painful split.

"After doing two features back to back, Chicken Run and Were-Rabbit, they were such enormous processes to go through taking years and years, I just wanted to get back to doing something I could be more in control of again," Park says. "Because it's primarily for the BBC, I'm not getting constant notes about how it's going to work in middle America, or how some kid doesn't understand what some northern phrase is." Towards the end, the relationship with DreamWorks became "a sort of a battle", he admits. Chicken Run, Aardman's first feature film, was "exciting" and a huge learning curve. But, faced with Park's determination to preserve the integrity of the characters he created while still a struggling film student - he came to Aardman in 1985 after its founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton spotted his talent - Hollywood executives wielding focus group studies and test screening results were always going to come off second best. "They really wanted us to do a Wallace and Gromit film but at the same time they also had half a mind on how they could make it work in the States. That was always the question," Park says.

"It was a great experience and I feel very proud of the end result. But we had to dig our heels in an awful lot. I don't mind that, it was just the effort that goes into that is a stress in itself." Aardman fought hard to retain the rights to the characters, which left DreamWorks feeling uncomfortable about losing control of an area almost as important to the bottom line as the box office take. "They found it difficult working with characters they didn't own," says Park. "They were trying to respect that at the same time as trying to completely dictate to us. There was a sense of tension." After the Hollywood dream turned sour, reaching its nadir with the disappointing non-Park CGI film Flushed Away, both sides walked away and Aardman signed a new contract with Sony Pictures. Park concurs that, after the animation boom of the mid-1990s with clever family films that could appeal equally to kids and adults - Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo and so on - there was a feeling that Hollywood had fallen out of love with animation. But he thinks Aardman's new relationship with Sony will blossom.

The studio has three non-Park films about to be green-lit - Pirates (directed by Lord), The Cat Burglars (overseen by the co-director of The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Steve Box) and Arthur Christmas. And, while DreamWorks was pushing the studio more towards CGI, Sony is happy for it to combine computer techniques with Park's beloved claymation. He still recalls the moment when he alighted upon it as his medium of choice. "I suddenly saw what a magical effect it had. Everybody knows what a lump of clay is and seeing it come to life is quite a magical thing. You can see the material and see it moving and suddenly gaining a character somehow," he says. Park says it is unlikely there will ever be another Wallace and Gromit movie, but more television specials remain a possibility. He adds he also has an idea for another feature but is concentrating on A Matter of Loaf and Death for the time being. "All of our stuff has taken time to grow on people. It started small and had this long, slow, organic growth.

You can't knock stuff out quick if it's going to be good." Park's features have a tendency towards comic over-expression, presumably a side-effect of years of showing animators how he wants a character's eyes or face to move. And, while polite to a fault, he's not at ease talking about himself, and it's not hard to guess that he would rather be downstairs in the dark of the studio with his characters than talking about them. Or, indeed, nose deep in a freshly delivered copy of the Beano. In between his Wallace and Gromit duties, Park has guest-edited the 70th anniversary issue of the comic, published later this month. As he hunches over the edition in his cluttered corner office, it is an achievement that appears to mean as much to him as the Oscars haphazardly displayed around his office - in what appears to be the ultimate accolade, he even features in the concluding frame of the Fred's Bed strip. "I've been a fan of it all my life. My dream was to draw for the Beano," he enthuses. "When I was 10 years old I started drawing cartoon strips with the Beano in mind. I lived in that world.

You own a comic, it's yours and adults don't understand it. You could pile them up under the bed and if you were off school ill, you'd go through them all." And with that, Park is off into a halting reverie about growing up in 1960s Preston, "where everything looked like it was still from the 1950s". About spending the whole of Christmas Day in 1971 sitting in a box reading his new Beano album, hurtling down side streets on homemade go-karts or "trolleys", dreaming up Wallace-style inventions with his brothers, and spending hours in the heat of his parent's loft working on his animations with his mother's home movie camera. It was Dennis the Menace, The Bash Street Kids and Lord Snooty that inspired him to pick up a pen, as he lovingly copied out their adventures. And there are clear parallels between the world inhabited by Wallace and Gromit - warmly nostalgic and located somewhere between the 1940s and the present, yet somehow timeless - and that contained between the covers of his beloved Beano. "It's a bit like the way Ealing comedies have influenced our work here.

The surburbness of it and the Britishness of it," he muses. "There's a certain quirkiness. The way Dandy set a cowboy in a strange northern town. There's a slightly bizarre incongruity to it. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was a Universal horror movie set in the north of England." Aardman's Bristol base does indeed feel a long way from the bright lights of Hollywood, or even the gossip and bustle of the London media world. As Park itches to disappear downstairs, back on to the production floor, it's easy to imagine that the distance between his parent's loft and Aardman HQ is not so great. "It's what I love. As I get on and films take four years to complete, I tend to have a hankering for very short projects so you can move on to the next idea. It's the ideas I'm interested in. What comes out of your head." The company was for a time the poster child for the British film industry, with Park's grin and comedy bow ties lighting up several otherwise dull Oscar nights.

But it has also had its disappointments in its 36-year history, which takes in Morph, Creature Comforts, Shaun the Sheep and a slew of advertising work. There was the fire that destroyed decades worth of drawings, and several points where intermittent work caused cashflow problems, or large-scale projects were started only to founder. But with another new commission for a CBeebies Shaun the Sheep spin-off (called Timmy) also in the bag, and its relationship with Hollywood clearer, Aardman seems set fair. "We never know how long it's going to last. We keep going through darker times and then Shaun the Sheep will take off or something else will turn up," Park says - although he is less optimistic about British animation as a whole, which he fears "seems to be at a low ebb". Park is back to eyeing the Beano on the desk between us with a mixture of pride and incredulity. "There is nothing like it. It's a one-off quirky thing that has come out of a certain culture. There's a lot of quirkiness, creativity and imagination." He is talking about the comic but he could, of course, be describing himself.

Curriculum vitae Education Sheffield Art School; National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield Career highlights (all at Aardman) 1989 Creature Comforts; A Grand Day Out 1993 The Wrong Trousers Wallace | Wallace and Gromit Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Date of birth: 7th August 1959 Age: 55 Wallace Herbertson is an inventor, main protagonist and half of the title duo of "Wallace & Gromit ". He delights in creating elaborate contraptions that often do not work as intended. He is a self-proclaimed genius, evident from his exclamation when he discovers Hutch's borrowed skill, a talent for all things mechanical. Most of Wallace's inventions look not unlike the designs of Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg; creator Nick Park has said of Wallace that all his inventions are designed around the principle of "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut". He is also very eccentric and funny, and is always willing to provide a good laugh or listen to one himself. Wallace can usually be found wearing a white shirt, brown wool trousers, green knitted pullover and a red tie.

He loves all types of cheese, but his favorite brand of all is Wensleydale , as proven in A Grand Day Out. Wallace is so obsessed with cheese that it seems he couldn't live anywhere without it, and he himself admits in The Curse of the Were Rabbit that he is simply "crackers about cheese." He is also very disappointed when his friends are shown to have a dislike of cheese, such as in A Close Shave , when his love interest Wendolene Ramsbottom said she was allergic to cheese and "couldn't stand the stuff", he ended his relationship to her. He also likes crackers, describing them as "cracking". He also likes tea in the afternoon and is shown to have a liking to toast for breakfast; he describes toast in The Wrong Trousers as "cracking" as well. The thought of Lancashire hotpot keeps him going in a crisis. He enjoys a nice cup of tea or a drop of Bordeaux red for those special occasions. He reads the Morning Post, the Afternoon Post and the Evening Post and occasionally Ay-Up!, which is a parody of Hello! magazine. Wallace in A Grand Day Out Some of Wallace's contraptions actually are based on a real-life invention.

For example, Wallace's method of getting up in the morning incorporates a bed that tips over to wake up its owner, an invention that was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 by Theophilus Carter, and is similar to a device sold in Japan that is used to ensure a certain wakeup time. The jelly-toast contraption that gives him breakfast in the morning also bears a similarity to a Rube Goldberg -type machine, with the ability to do more than one thing at the same time. His versatile nature and inventor abilities have caused him to be hired for a wide variety of jobs. In A Close Shave, he was a window cleaner along with Gromit. In The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, he was a pest controller, and in A Matter of Loaf and Death, he was a baker. He has a kindly nature, and is perhaps a little over-optimistic. At times he can be inadvertently selfish and inconsiderate, but always means well and has a good heart. Nick Park says of Wallace: "He's a very self-contained figure.

A very homely sort who doesn't mind the odd adventure." Wallace is loosely based on Park's father, whom he described in a radio interview as "an incurable tinkerer." He described one of his father's constructions, a combination of a beach hut and trailer, having curtains in the windows, bookshelves on the walls, and full-sized furniture bolted to the floor. Wallace as he appeared in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In the first photo shown on The Curse of the Were-Rabbit , it was revealed that once, when Gromit was little, Wallace had much hair and moustache and, on the photo that shows Gromit's graduation from "Dogwarts University", Wallace had lost his moustache, but still had a little hair. The reason behind Wallace's loss of hair is unknown. In A Matter of Loaf and Death , when Wallace is talking to Gromit, a picture is seen behind Gromit of Wallace with a brown moustache and brown hair. Both Wallace and Gromit live together at the ficticious address of 62 West Wallaby Street , Wigan, Lancashire.

However, his accent as voiced by Peter Sallis is from Sallis' native Holme Valley in Yorkshire but in 2007, Wallace made a cameo appearance on Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends in the episode "Ticket to Rod" and he was voiced by Dwight Schultz . In the National Trust's A Jubilee Bunt-a-thon short film, all games except Project Zoo, and Wallace And Gromit's Musical Marvels At The Proms, he was voiced by Aardman Team Member, Ben Whitehead . In Project Zoo, Wallace is voiced by Peter Sallis. Contents Add a photo to this gallery Trivia Wallace was originally a postman named, Jerry, but Nick Park felt the name did not fit with Gromit . Wallace has a different look in A Grand Day Out, his top of his head is smaller, bigger ears and his mouth is not so wide. In 2009, Nick Park said Wallace is born on the 7th August 1959, So Wallace is currently 57 Years old.

In Season 1 Episode 2 of Rex The Runt, Wallace is a cameo as a window cleaner, cleaning rex's window, before being knocked down by rex This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia ( view authors) . Wardrobe Wallace's usual day clothes is a green knitted pullover, a white shirt, brown colored trousers and red tie. In " Curse of the Were-Rabbit ", Wallace is sometimes wearing the Anti-Pesto uniform and cap. In " The Last Resort ", after Wallace gets all the things he need for the Seaside in the cellar, Wallace is wearing an orange tie, a red shirt with white stripes, and red trousers. In " The Bogey Man ", after Gromit makes Wallace join Prickly Thicket, Wallace is wearing an Prickly Thicket official tank top instead of his pullover for the rest of the episode. Quotes Amazon.com: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Nick Parker: Amazon Digital Services LLC By Technophobe on December 25, 2005 Format: DVD Wallace and Gromit and their creator Nick Park need no introduction.

With their three shorts 'A grand day out', "The wrong trousers" and "A close shave' they've won hearts of everyone around the globe. With all three films winning countless awards, including 2 oscars, and accolades worldwide, Wallace & Gromit has become a global phenomenon. Not to mention here the rare distinction Nick Park enjoys of being the only animator ever whose 2 films("Creature Comforts" and "A grand day out") were nominated in the same category, same year(1991) for the best short film oscar, so he could take home only one for his groundbreaking masterpiece "Creature Comforts'. With his exceptional talent in the painstaking art of claymation, Nick Park has taken stop motion to newer heights with "Creature Comforts', "Wallace & Gromit' and his first feature film "Chicken Run". "Wallace & Gromit:Curse of the wererabbit" is the highly anticipated first full length feature involving Wallace and his brainy canine companion Gromit. Its a dream come true for all the fans around the world who have been expecting their favourite characters on silver screen for a long time.

In "Curse of the wererabbit", a vegetable guzzling "monster' is on the verge of spoiling the giant vegetable competition organised by Lady Tottington and only wallace and gromit can save the day now. Nick Park has remained faithful to the characterisations and followed the same trend which w&g is known for. New adventure, few more amazing inventions, more new characters, new circumstances, more suspense but same old British flavour, feel and charm...W&G first feature is surely a winner. Those familiar with "King Kong", "Jaws" and other Hitchcock films will enjoy the spoof and occasional references more! Read more › By IcedTea on February 7, 2006 Format: DVD EVERYTHING ON DVD including the deleted scenes, "Stage Fright", "How to Build a Bunny", interviews with Nick Park/Steve Box, and the Aardman documentary....ALL of the special features (the movie itself, too) are CLOSED-CAPTIONED! WOW! Park and Box's commentaries appear as subtitles while the movie runs with Closed-Captions. I suggest watching movie again with captions turned off on your TV set to follow the subtitled commentaries.

(because captions overlap subtitles, y'know) Sooooo pleased with this DVD as many DVDs don't caption their special features. THANKS DREAMWORKS and AARDMAN (and whoever else) for caring to caption everything! From a Deaf family and the Deaf/HOH community, and a Wallace & Gromit Nut. Comment 30 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By A. Fondacaro on January 17, 2006 Format: DVD ...and tumble, and turn, and suspend in mid-air like a lithe feather? I stared in awe at this, wondering how they could have possibly done that. Imagine the camerawork involved. It's possible they could have simply plugged an image into a computer and manipulated it with their CGI programs, but I choose to remain blissfully ignorant of the whole process. For once I'm so enamored that I don't want to know how they did it.

When you get the DVD, which you will because it is that brilliant, you have to pause it at some point and look at a character's face up-close. What are you looking for? Fingerprints. The fingerprints of the claymation artists who move the figurines one frame at a time. These people deserve medals for bravery, or patience, or madness. Heck all three! I have to confess at this point that I'm a Wallace & Gromit poser; but I do know what a gromit is because I work on my own cars, you have to give me that. I've never seen anything else with Wallace & Gromit except "Curse of the Were-Rabbit." Lord help me, I love them both. It's such a good-natured, joyful little film, and it will satisfy you on just about every level you can think of. You will be entertained, you will laugh, you will feel pathos, you will care about the characters, and you will find some kind of itching deep down where you might wonder about your own world. Ah ha! What a good movie should do!

The plot is thus; Wallace and his trusty sidekick dog Gromit are independent pest removers (read; rabbits), who go about the town removing the little bushy-tailed pests from the gardens of the neighborhood. Business is good; the annual Vegetable Show is coming up, and everyone wants to be prepared. Read more › Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again By B. Merritt on February 10, 2006 Format: DVD It's tough to fathom a G-rated animated film garnering so much world attention, but there you go. Wallace and Gromit have captured ...something ....in our collective imaginations. Perhaps it's a harkening back to simpler times. Perhaps it's the witticism. Perhaps it's the originality of "claymation" (clay characters shot one painstaking frame after the next). But whatever it is, it works.

Not having seen any previous works by Steve Box and Nick Park (directors), I have no comparisons to draw from with regards to their earlier award-winning claymation movies (A CLOSE SHAVE, 2001). But I can say, without hesitation, that this is a very good film for a couple of reasons. First was the story. There's never been a "vegetarian" monster before, but now we have one with "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." This giant fluffy bunny has the strength of ten men and ten-times the appetite, too. Gardens are being destroyed and it's only days before the Giant Vegetable Competition. Wallace and Gromit, founders of the "Anti-Pesto" pest control agency (and they drive a green van, which is just too funny, too, if you know what Pesto looks like), have their hands full. They're basement is already maxed out with rabbits they've caught (they don't kill them, but are humane and take care of their pests). And now this Were-Rabbit problem. What to do? Second was the character voices.

Peter Sallis, British-born stage actor, reprises his role as Wallace, the good-hearted pest control agent with great gadgetry. Gromit the dog, of course, is his trusty mute sidekick who saves Wallace constantly but receives no praise for his work. Helena Bonham Carter plays the voice of Lady Tottington, the love interest of Wallace and the wicked Victor Quartermaine (Hmm, where have I heard that name before? Read more › Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again Wallace and Gromit may have had final adventure due to Peter Sallis' health - ITV News 16 May 2014 at 10:37am Wallace and Gromit may have had final adventure due to Peter Sallis' health Aardman Animations handout photo of the Wallace and Gromit characters. Photo: Aardman/PA Archive The Oscar-winning creator of Wallace and Gromit has warned that the duo may have had their last adventure.

Nick Park said he was unsure whether he would carry on the British comedy without veteran actor Peter Sallis - who voices Wallace. The creator of the plasticine pair said Sallis, 93, was "not too well" and despite having an understudy in actor Ben Whitehead, questions remained over whether the series would continue. Peter Sallis (left) with Wallace & Gromit creator Nick Park. Credit: Joel Ryan/PA Archive Sallis suffers from the eye condition macular degeneration and has not voiced the Wensleydale-loving character in four years. Park, speaking at the 25th anniversary of Leith School of Art, said it was a "big question" whether they would continue making Wallace and Gromit, according to The Scotsman . Aardman Animations handout photo of the Wallace and Gromit characters. Credit: Aardman/PA Archive He’s not too well. It’s a big question for us, whether to keep going. We have got an understudy who has stepped in sometimes, Ben Whitehead, a young actor in London. He actually started off doing the stuff Peter didn’t want to do, like video games, or if we needed a voice for an exhibition.

He was doing some of the voices on The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and stood in for Peter sometimes. He’s quite convincing. Some people have spotted it and have said he doesn’t really sound like him [Wallace], but he’s getting good. Whether he will stand in eventually, I’m not sure. There’s nothing planned at the moment. – Nick Park He added that he "would love to do more Wallace and Gromits in the future" and that he "could make more films with them till the cows come home". Nick Park (left) with his Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Credit: Ian West/PA Wire It was also revealed that Sallis originally agreed to take the job of voicing Wallace despite being offered just £25. The Last of the Summer Wine star was first approached by Park in 1982 and has voiced Wallace since 1990. Park said Wallace did not have a wide mouth until Sallis first said "cheese". Last updated Fri 16 May 2014 Crikey, Gromit! Have they retired Wallace?

Creator says characters may have had their final adventure | Daily Mail Online comments Plasticine superstars Wallace and Gromit may have had their final adventure, according to their Oscar-winning creator. Nick Park said he was unsure whether to continue the much-loved British comedy without actor Peter Sallis, who has voiced Wallace since 1990 when he accepted the voiceover job for £25, yet is growing increasingly frail at 93. The voice of the veteran, who starred in Last of the Summer Wine, is inextricably linked with Wensleydale-loving Wallace, – but Sallis is said to be in poor health. Scroll down for video The creator of Wallace and Gromit has said he is unsure whether to continue with the comedy He suffers from the eye condition macular degeneration and hasn’t voiced the character since the Wallace and Gromit World of Invention series on the BBC four years ago. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Instead, Ben Whitehead, 38, has worked as his stand-in in recent projects such as a live show at the Proms and a computer game. Park, 55, said of Sallis: ‘He’s not too well.

It’s a big question for us – whether to keep going.’ Nick Park first contacted Peter Sallis in 1982 when the stop-motion animator was still at film school working on a Grand Day Out. The actor who voices Wallace, left, Peter Sallis is growing increasingly frail aged 93 He decided the actor, who was starring as Clegg in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, was perfect to voice Wensleydale-loving Wallace. Speaking at the 25th anniversary celebrations for Leith School of Art in Edinburgh, Mr Park said: ‘Peter was really my only choice. ‘Surprisingly, he agreed to do it. I offered him 25 quid. He just said yes, and came round. Then it was the way he said ‘cheese’. Wallace actually didn’t have a wide mouth until Peter said ‘cheese’. It has been lovely to get to know him over the years.’

Question: Who was the creator of Wallace and Gromit?
Answer: NICK PARK